Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Buns Recipe

This soft and fluffy lemon blueberry cheesecake buns recipe looks impressive, but is super easy to make.

I made these because of pure greed: I kind of fancied a blueberry lemon cheesecake, but I also kind of fancied custard buns.

So I Frankensteined it.

I decided to make my lemon blueberry cheesecake buns a little like Swedish vanilla custard buns: a discs of dough with 'wells' pressed into the centre to hold the cheesecake filling in lieu of custard.

I've also seen blueberry versions of Swedish vanilla custard buns. Some use fresh blueberries, others use blueberry jam. I love both and, because I'm indecisive, ended up using a little of both in my lemon blueberry cheesecake buns.

You can also watch me make these on my YouTube channel, Tashcakes:

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes six buns.)

Ingredients for Buns:

30g unsalted butter
100ml boiling water
100ml cold milk
300g strong white bread flour
50g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp easy bake (fast action) yeast

Ingredients for Cheesecake Filling:

165g full fat cream cheese
40g cornflour
70g caster sugar
280ml milk
Juice of 1 lemon (zest it first and keep the zest for garnishing)
6 tsp blueberry jam
A couple of handfuls of fresh blueberries

To Dust and Glaze:

1 tsp plain flour
A few tbsp of milk

To Garnish:

Zest of one lemon

Method:

1. To make the buns, pour the hot water over the butter in a small heatproof bowl or saucepan and swirl until the butter has melted. Add the milk.

2. Add the dry ingredients into a big bowl and stir in the liquid mixture, forming a dough with your hands.

3. Knead on a lightly-floured surface for about fifteen minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Pop into a lightly-oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise until doubled in size (30 minutes to two hours, depending on how warm your room is).

4. While the dough is proofing, make the cheesecake filling. Whisk the cream cheese, cornflour and caster sugar together in a saucepan until smooth, and gradually stir in the milk. Stir continuously on a medium heat until thick, then stir in the lemon juice.

5. Spoon into a bowl and cover with clingfilm to prevent a skin from forming, making sure the clingfilm touches the surface of the cheesecake 'pudding'. Leave to cool.

6. Punch the dough down, turn out onto a lightly-floured surface, and divide the dough into six portions.

7. Shape the dough into saucer-sized discs with your hands or a rolling pin, and place on a baking paper-lined baking tray. Cover with clingfilm and rest for 30 minutes.

8. While waiting for the dough to rest, preheat the oven to 180°C.

9. Dust the tops of the dough discs with 1 tsp plain flour, use the bottom of a glass tumbler to smush down the centres of your dough discs to create indents, and brush the tops with a little milk.

10. Spoon or pipe the cheesecake filling into the centre of each.

11. Dot over a teaspoonful of blueberry jam on each filled bun, sprinkle over a few fresh blueberries, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

12. Cool on a wire rack before sprinkling over fresh lemon zest and serving.

Enjoy, and have fun.